A Hunger-free Vision

Hunger is a Problem With a Solution

Hunger is an invisible problem, so most people are unaware of how large a problem it is. In Hartford and Tolland counties alone—the area served by Foodshare—there are 128,000 people who cannot be sure where their next meal is coming from. That includes one out of every five children in the area.

They live in every single town in these counties, from the wealthiest suburbs to the most rural communities. They include people who were caught in the Great Recession, people squeezed between inflation and wage stagnation, people working in low-wage jobs and trapped in the poverty cycle, and retired people who can’t stretch their limited funds far enough. The majority of the 128,000 people we serve are either children or seniors, and the majority of the rest are working full time jobs (or two). Click here to meet some of them.

Foodshare's vision is for a community where all of these people can get all of the food they need. And as the region’s food bank we work toward that vision by getting food donations from the food industry and distributing them to 300 food pantries, community kitchens, homeless shelters, and other partner programs. But the problem is growing faster than our ability to keep up with it. Last year, Foodshare distributed enough food for 12 million meals, but even that huge amount of food only covered one-third of the need. So we have crafted a strategy to bridge that gap: we will engage the entire community in order to increase the amount of food available from all sources (not just Foodshare) and to help build self-sufficiency so that fewer people need food. Click here to learn more about this plan. And if you're ready to take action, join the Movement to Solve Hunger.